Kate Olson's KO Ensemble

Sun, August 27, 2017

7:00 pm

$10.00 - $20.00

KO ENSEMBLE is a rotating cast of Seattle's best jazz and creative musicians. This is Kate's most straight ahead jazz project, and her compositions are heavily influenced by the music of Thelonious Monk, as well as the compositions of her contemporaries in the Seattle music scene. The music's subject matter ranges from unrequited love to the sound of ripe fruit hitting the ground, and everything in between.

"Her KO Ensemble is straight-ahead jazz, a fastball right over the heart of the plate, and it’s just as terrific as her more unconventional projects. What’s especially gratifying about this project is that it provides her the space to reveal the extent of her lyricism and to bring it to full bloom. The melodic fragments she spins and weaves into the framework of her jazz-on-the-fringes music certainly possesses an evocative beauty, but to hear her exhale a melody in a more familiar environment really allows her talent to shine." - Bird is the Worm

Share This Event

Kate Olson is an improvising saxophonist and music educator based in Seattle, WA. Since moving to Seattle in 2010, she has done her best to infiltrate the local, regional and international improvised music scenes. She can be heard performing with her own projects KO SOLO and KO ELECTRIC, and as a collaborator with Syrinx Effect, Ask the Ages, the Seattle Rock Orchestra, the Royal Room Collective Music Ensemble and Electric Circus (led by Wayne Horvitz), the Seattle Jazz Composer's Ensemble and with such Seattle staples as the Seattle Men's and Women's Choruses and cabaret producers Can Can Presents and Verlaine & McCann. Kate has a BA in Music (Jazz Emphasis) from the University of Wyoming and an MM in Improvisation from the University of Michigan.
Kate’s international resume continues to grow, including performances in Russia, Latvia, Turkey, Switzerland, South Korea, Cuba, and Slovakia. She has appeared on stage with Terry Riley, Stuart Dempster, Pauline Oliveros, Allison Miller, Bobby Previte, Skerik, Patricia Barber and pop music icons Elvis Costello, Brandi Carlile, Sir Mix-a-lot, Matt Cameron, and Big Star's Third (featuring members of REM, the Posies, and Nada Surf) among others. Kate was nominated in 2011 and 2013 for the Earshot Golden Ear Award in the Emerging Artist category, and in 2014 and 2016, she was nominated for the Best NW Instrumentalist Category, and in 2016 her band KO Ensemble was also nominated as best NW Alternative Group.